“Why should I join the church?” That’s the question that many people have when the topic of church membership comes up. Many people are reluctant to formally join the church. After all, we don’t see membership ceremonies in the early church. We can participate in worship, we can get involved in various ministries, and we can certainly feel a part of the family of God, all without official membership in a local church. So what’s the big deal?

I’d like to offer several reasons to join the church.

1. Biblical Precedent. While we don’t see membership ceremonies in the New Testament, the New Testament does speak of those “inside the church” and those “outside the church” (1 Corinthians 5). The context is not about physical location but about formal association. Likewise in Acts 5, when the judgement of God fell upon those who had lied to God, the result was that “no one else dared join them” (5:13). The word “join” indicates a formal commitment, a bonding. Clearly there were those who had formally bonded with a particular body of believers and were then “inside” the church.

2. Identity. By formally joining a church you are identifying yourself with a local body of Christ. You are saying that you stand by and support the work of a particular church. This does not mean this church is perfect and other churches are not good, it simply means you are prepared to identify yourself with the work of the Lord where you worship. This is not only significant for yourself, but significant for others who have also identified with the church body.

3. Accountability. No Christian should live his or her life in solitary confinement. One of the benefits of being part of the church is accountability. It means I can’t go off and do whatever I want, however I want and whenever I want. It means I have to think about others and even answer to others. Many people shy away from accountability, but without accountability we run a very high risk of wandering around spiritually or creating our own spirituality. We may have good intentions, but good intentions aren’t always enough to keep us on the straight and narrow.

4. Responsibility. The whole reason why the Lord talked about the church as the Body of Christ was to indicate that we all have various areas of responsibility and service. Certainly there are responsibilities that can be taken without formal membership, but when we become members we are taking on greater responsibility for the life, health and direction of the church. As members, we are responsible for electing our leaders in the church and making important directional decisions.

5. Commitment. When someone joins the church, it indicates a formal commitment. It means I’m going to stick with it even when the going gets rough. It doesn’t mean that a person can never change their commitment but it means that a person isn’t so loosely associated with a group that the first time something strange happens they are quick to leave the church. They are there for the long haul to see that the church does indeed function as it should.

A word of warning: Joining the church does not make you a Christian. A right relationship with God comes only through repentance and faith in Christ as your Saviour, not by church membership. You can have your name on the church membership roll but it is only when your name is written in the Book of Life that you can be assured of eternal life.

If you have made a commitment to Christ and if you are enjoying the fellowship and life and ministry of this local church, I encourage you to give church membership serious consideration. We would be glad to welcome you.

John Wesley had a simple formula for handling money: Make all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can.

Most of us have mastered the first of these steps or at least we’re attempting to master it. We want to earn as much as we can. I know when I was earning $4.00/hour, if I could find a job that would pay me $4.50 I would have jumped at it. Rightly or wrongly, I wanted to make all I can.

Many more of us have tried to get to step two, but we seem to have failed. A CBC news story this week spoke about the increasing debt that Canadians are incurring. According to the story more than half a million Canadians are more than 3 months behind on their credit payments. All together, Canadians have a combined national household debt of 1.3 trillion dollars. It doesn’t seem like we’re succeeding in the “save all you can” department.

With so much debt, it is no wonder that we are having an even harder time with the third step; “giving all we can”. We have bought ourselves into debt and can no longer afford to give. There is nothing to give.

How did we get here and perhaps more importantly, how can we get out?

Getting into debt is very easy. There are many opportunities to borrow money. There are increasing advertisements suggesting you should have whatever you want, whenever you want, and you don’t worry about it until 2012. We see others with something nice and we figure we should have it too. Furthermore, we figure, that as long as we’re doing our part in the offering, we can do whatever we want with the balance of our money. After all, it’s “ours”. We earned it.

The reality is we need a totally different understanding of money. We may have earned it, but it’s not “ours”. Yes, the pay check we get has our name on it. And the bank figures it belongs to us. But the Biblical perspective is quite different; it comes from God and belongs to God. We are the stewards of it. In other words, even though we give 10% to the church, the balance isn’t ours to do whatever we please. The balance also belongs to the Lord and we need to consult Him in it’s use. Biblically God blesses people so that they can be a blessing to others. Yet, most of the time, when we get blessed (financially) we use it for ourselves. On the contrary, as John Wesley taught (and practiced) we earn and save all we can, not so we can “have it all” but so we can have more to give.

According to our church Manual, “The Church of the Nazarene believes that Jesus commanded His disciples to have a special relationship to the poor of the world; that Christ’s Church ought, first, to keep itself simple and free from an emphasis on wealth and extravagance and, second, to give itself to the care, feeding, clothing, and shelter of the poor. Throughout the Bible and in the life and example of Jesus, God identifies with and assists the poor, the oppressed, and those in society who cannot speak for themselves. In the same way, we, too, are called to identify with and to enter into solidarity with the poor and not simply to offer charity from positions of comfort” [Church of the Nazarene Manual, 903.4].

These are our roots; and good roots they are! They are taught in the Scriptures. As we prosper we must guard ourselves from drawing away from these roots.

The next time you get a bonus or some extra funds, instead of automatically thinking about how you can use that for yourself, take a moment and ask yourself is there is someone who you can bless with at least a portion of your blessing.